By Sergei Kolchin It is well known that the Soviet Union's oil and gas reserves, of which the Russian share was the largest, provided the main life support line for socialist bloc countries. The sliding scale of oil prices adopted within the Council for Mutual... MORE

By Volodymyr Zviglyanich Ukraine celebrated the tenth anniversary of its independence on August 24 with the rumble of a military parade in the style of post-Soviet surrealist pomp, which effortlessly transported those watching the spectacle back to the days when there was not even a... MORE

By Elena Dikun Rumors have recently started flying around Moscow that by the end of the year Russian President Vladimir Putin, now fully comfortable in his role, intends at last to begin recruiting staff from a source close to his heart. Allegedly, representatives of the... MORE

By Aleksandr Tsipko The summer began in Russia with attempts by the siloviki to expand their "lebensraum." I refer not only to their determination to exact revenge for their previous defeats at the hands of the liberals, but also to their attempts to influence the... MORE

Contemporary economists, sociologists, political scientists and even philosophers tend to focus their analyses solely on the reasons for the break-up of the Soviet Union and the collapse of what we called "developed socialism," or what the West called "communism." This is understandable: It is this... MORE

By Mikhail Zherebyatev Belgorod has passed a new law on missionary work that harks back to czarist laws. Will the federal authorities be able to quell the confrontation between the Moscow Patriarchy and the provincial bureaucracy? Missionary work is firmly associated with the spreading of... MORE

By Elena Chinyaeva August 19 of this year marked the tenth anniversary of the failed 1991 putsch, which brought an end to the Communist-dominated Soviet era. Ten years later, Russia still finds itself halfway through the transition process to a market-oriented economy and open society.... MORE

By Zaira Magomedova Whenever he visits the Russian regions, President Vladimir Putin always stresses that he plans to continue his work to strengthen the power vertical. "Our main task today is to ensure a clear distribution of powers between Moscow and the regions on the... MORE

By Sadji POLITICAL CUNNING BUT NO DIVIDENDS The propresidential media in Kyrgyzstan have recently stepped up their attacks on parliament. The esteem in which both houses are held by the public is being blatantly discredited in the eyes of the public. An analyses of articles... MORE

By Aleksandr Buzgalin The break-up of the Soviet Union, which began long before 1991, is only now beginning to be recognized as one of the most important events of the last century--ten years after the official "date" of the disintegration of that unique social, economic,... MORE